This blog is dedicated to treating everyone - clients, prospects, friends, and family - as valuable partners. We should show them our gratitude through all our actions, including our marketing.

April 27, 2014

Know, Like, Trust

In his
book, Endless Referrals, Bob Burg
tells us that we should build relationships with people whom we know, like, and
trust. People do business with, and refer business to, those people who
they know, like, and trust.
When we meet people for the first time, we must be willing to work to establish
relationships
with those people.

What does know, like, and trust really mean?
Relationships are two way streets and should be built on mutual action, and
effort, by both participants. We are both involved in the relationship that we
are building, and we both will benefit from it when it is built. We both must
participate in the forming and building of these relationships.

When we first meet anyone, do we “know” each other immediately?
We must meet again with each other, chat about business, life, sports, each
other, whatever helps us get to know one another. We must decide if we “like” each
other through conversation, watching our actions as well as listening to our
words. We must “feel” the relationship start to build. Then we can move to
trust, the most important part of any relationship.

If we do not trust each other, we cannot pass referrals
to each other. Referrals reflect our reputation and are the basis for building
that reputation with others. Referrals are a two way street and involve all
parties. We must trust the referred person and the person to whom we refer them.
We must trust ourselves when making an appropriate referral, and the other two
parties must trust us and our wisdom in making the referral.

We must stop being sales people, we must become
relationship builders, relationships which allow both partners to thrive,
prosper, and succeed. These relationships should include partners who are
vested in each other’s success, helping each other to grow their businesses in
any manner possible. Relationships may result in sales to one another, but they
should result in referrals for mutual success.

We must inquire into the other person to discover what it
is that they need, want, or seek to enhance the success of their business or
life. Perhaps they need a business coach, maybe they are looking to change
careers, or possibly they need to hire employees. How can we help them discover
what they need? This process of deciding if we know, like and trust each other
should provide insight to mutual needs.

We may not have what they need, but we may know someone
else who does. We may not know someone else who does, but we may know someone
who may know that someone. We must focus on helping others, not on the sale that
we would like to make. Taking care of the needs of others is good karma. Putting
forth good karma will result in good karma for us in return.

Meeting others who share our beliefs,
objectives, ethics, and goals is the normal focus of all of us. We network with
others who we know, like, and trust. We meet others with whom we start building
relationships with the intent of mutual success. Getting to know, like, and
trust those people we meet and building relationships that lead to success will
allow all of us to move forward in our businesses and our lives.

Please leave me your comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Get to know, like, and trust other people and build
relationships that benefit all of us. Remember that karma brings everything
back to us sooner or later, both good and bad.